Nokia Workers in China Factory on Strike After Deal with Microsoft

Nokia Workers in China Factory on Strike After Deal with Microsoft

Nokia's devices and services division becoming part of Microsoft is a great thing for consumers. It streamlines the Nokia handsets that features Windows Phone 8 and gives Microsoft a dedicated partner for its flagship operating system. That being said, there's a large group of people who are less than thrilled with this deal, that being Nokia workers in one of the company's manufacturing plants in China.

After having been forced to agree and sign to new contracts that contained "very undesirable" terms, several hundred Nokia workers did not go to work this week, and instead went on strike. This contracts were drawn up after Nokia came to terms with Microsoft on the new deal. As of now, almost 100 employees have lost their jobs from not showing up to work, which has caused the remaining workers to be joined by new strikers who have all said they will strike until something is done about these new contracts. One employee said that, "They have no grounds for firing us. We've already chosen this road to walk on, so we'll stick with it."

Now, a no-call no-show is grounds for firing in any state I have worked in, although rules in China might be a bit different; I'd imagine they'd be more harsh, though. At any rate, Nokia spokesman Doug Dawson has said that these employees were terminated because they didn't come to work, plain and simple. He did add that Nokia has already spoken with employees over the past couple of days to "explain the situation and dispel the many rumors and false statements." Naturally, a handful of workers have said that did not occur.

On the issue, Nokia said in a statement,

We continue our efforts to engage a small group of employees in our Dongguan facility who are demanding a severance package - for jobs they have not lost and which continue to offer the same salary and benefits. The vast majority of employees are at work. Our manufacturing operations in Dongguan continue. We have also adjusted our operations in our other manufacturing facilities.

So what happens next? All of the employees might be fired, or adversely, Nokia will draw up new contracts in order to limit the damage from this making the news. Either way, it looks like the protests will continue until one of those two things happen.